Stories By Date

Worlds Colliding, Fantasy Hoops and Malkmus Edition

If I had to come up with a list of 10 things in the world that I love, fantasy basketball and Pavement would certainly be near the top of that list. So imagine my shock when I refreshed Rotoworld last night (yes, refreshed, it's always up on my computer) and I saw a headline that said "The Stephen Malkmus Interview." At first I thought it might be some reference I didn't get. The main basketball writer for the site is a noted indie rock fan, after all. But nope, it's an actual interview with Malkmus. All about fantasy hoops. Pretty awesome, right? Nevermind the fact that my immediate reaction was jealousy, since I tried to set up a similar interview before the NBA season started, but kept getting the runaround because Malkmus was "on tour" or "spending time with his family." So, basically, I got scooped by Rotoworld. But since it's my most-visited Web site, I quickly got over that and enjoyed reading SM's take on the NBA.

Among the more interesting tidbits:

-- His team name is Widespread Perkins, a nice combo of jam band + rugged Celtics center.

-- Other members of his league include Bob Nastanovich of Pavement, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Janet Weiss and Joanna Bolme of the Jicks and Sam Coomes of Quasi.

-- We both drafted Andris Biedrins in the fifth round this year. (One of my few decent picks this year, alas. I sure do end up watching lots of meaningless but entertaining Warriors games.)

-- Favorite quote from the interview: "Fact is there are mostly cool dudes in the NBA." Most people I know don't understand why I love the NBA more than any other sport. But that's why. Baseball players are tobacco chewing hicks. Football players are gargantuan and felons. Hockey players are foreign. But NBA guys are just a bunch of young dudes who care about two things, pretty much -- basketball and partying. How can you not love that?